Spiking Prevention Policy
Preventing and Responding to Spiking
1. Introduction
Spiking refers to the act of adding drugs to people’s drinks, or body, without their consent or knowledge, to try to control their behaviours. A person can be spiked to increase vulnerability for a variety of reasons, including sexual assault, robbery, or an attempted joke.
Drink spiking can include slipping drugs into an alcoholic drink, as well as putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink and/or adding extra alcohol to an already alcoholic drink. Spiking can also take place using a needle to directly inject drugs into someone’s body, without their knowledge or consent. Spiking is illegal and carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison. If a robbery, sexual assault, or other criminal behaviour has taken place, the sentence could be even longer.
Nationally, information about the prevalence of spiking is difficult due to poor data, however it is thought that it has been widespread for decades. YouGov conducted nationally representative research in 2021, with 8% of people saying they had had a drink spiked, and 10% saying they knew someone else who had.
Spiking can have significant impacts on victims’ lives. A national survey of students found that victims of spiking may go on to experience anxiety, feel the need to exercise more caution when out, feel scared in certain drinking environments, and feel paranoid about being spiked again.
The University of Bath and the SU (the Students’ Union) do not tolerate spiking and will take action to prevent and respond to incidents of spiking, which this policy outlines.
Purpose of Policy
To outline the University and SU’s joint approach to preventing and responding to incidents of spiking.
2. Principles
The University and the SU are committed to;
- Preventing and responding to the issue of spiking as part of our work to develop a culture of care.
- Raising awareness of spiking and challenging the associated culture of victim blaming.
- Taking an evidence-based, bystander approach to prevention, helping bystanders to understand their options to intervene if they feel able and willing to do so.
- To take a survivor-led, trauma-informed approach to response.
3. Roles and Responsibilities
SU
- To raise awareness of spiking within the SU.
- To ensure robust response procedures are in place in venues and at events in cases of reported or suspected spiking.
- To ensure venue staff are trained to prevent, identify, and respond to incidents of spiking or suspected spiking.
- Where possible, to ensure safety devices are available to students in venues (e.g. cup covers and spikies).
- To ensure support protocols are in place for students reporting cases or suspected cases of spiking to SU Advice, including training to enact these protocols.
- To support students through the process of responding to an alleged spiking incident (i.e. supporting Student Respondents in student discipline cases).
- To remain up to date with best practise and national guidelines, and to contribute positively to community and local safety and public health approaches with regards to spiking.
- To ensure that the SU (via the Student Community Partnership) maintain close working relationship with local night-time economy venues, via the Bath BID group or similar future organisation or project.
Campus Services
- To raise awareness of spiking within university venues.
- To ensure robust response procedures are in place in venues and at events in cases of reported or suspected spiking.
- To ensure venue staff are trained to prevent, identify, and respond to incidents of spiking or suspected spiking.
- To ensure University Security staff have robust response procedures in place in cases of reporting or suspected spiking.
- Where possible, to ensure safety devices are available to students in venues (e.g. cup covers and spikies).
- To remain up to date with best practise and national guidelines, and to contribute positively to community and local safety and public health approaches with regards to spiking.
- To ensure that the university (via the Security team) maintain close working relationship with local night-time economy venues, via the Bath BID group group or similar future organisation or project.
Student Support and Safeguarding
- To raise awareness of the illegality of spiking through the Be the Change initiative.
- To ensure support protocols are in place for students reporting cases or suspected cases of spiking to the Wellbeing Service, including training to enact these protocols.
- To include information on this policy during Policy Training sessions for Student Discipline Investigators, Student Misconduct and Discipline Panel members and Student Appeals Panel members.
- To remain up to date with best practise and national guidelines, and to contribute positively to community and local safety and public health approaches with regards to spiking.
- To ensure that external and statutory partner services are aware of this policy.
4. Support for Students
Support
Experiencing or witnessing spiking can be very distressing. We strongly recommend that students seek emotional support from the Student Wellbeing service or the SU Advice Service. Students can also request support from the University or SU via the Support and Report tool.
Reporting
We encourage students to report incidents of spiking, or suspected spiking, so that they can access support, even if they do not know or remember the perpetrator. Students can report cases directly to venue staff, security staff or the police.
Students can also report their experiences to the University or the independent SU Advice Service through the Support and Report tool. Students can choose to make a formal report, against another member of the University community, if they want to. Should a student wish to make a report to the University, an SU Advisor can offer independent advice on what to include in the report, the process and possible outcomes.
5. Records and Notifications
Student will be encouraged to report cases of spiking or suspected spiking via the Support and Report tool.
SU and University venue managers will pass information about reported cases or suspected cases to the Wellbeing Service or the SU Advice Service, with the student’s consent.
If a student reports directly to Security, a Security report will be forwarded to Student Support within 24 hours.
For students who report to the SU Advice Service or the Wellbeing Service, and for cases passed to these teams via venue Managers, the advisors in these teams will check whether this has already been reported. If not, advisors will record these cases, with the student’s consent, via the advisor reporting functions of Support and Report.
The Dignity and Respect Liaison Officer will monitor reports for clusters or trends in reporting, and feed (non-identifying) information back to the SU, Campus Services, or the Police as appropriate.
6. Related Policies and Procedures
Student Regulation 7 – Student Discipline Regulation
Student Regulation 8 – Student Discipline Processes for Students
Any student who has been party to this policy, and would like to raise a concern about the service they received, can do so using the Student Complaints Policy.